The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for searching for archived items of interest and bookmarking those items for future reference. More specifically, the invention provides for identifying a broadcast program of interest that is archived on a network and bookmarking the archived version of the program at a particular point during the broadcast.
Currently, it is possible to search for items of interest that are archived and available on the Internet and then bookmark those items for future reference. However, in order to bookmark the item of interest, the item must first be retrieved from the network on which it is archived. Usually this retrieval process is preceded by a search for the item. Searching for an item of interest presents drawbacks. For example, if a keyword search is conducted in the situations where either the Uniform Resource Locator (URL) of the particular item of interest is not known or where the searcher is not yet aware of a particular document that is of interest, the number of "hits" retrieved could be so extensive as to require the searcher to sift through the search results to find a particular item of interest. Thus, extensive searching may be required before a particular archived document is found and bookmarked for future reference.
Even if the searcher knows the specific URL of an item of interest, and is thus able to retrieve the item without extensive searching, current methods of bookmarking an item of interest present drawbacks. In order to bookmark an item, the viewer is required to identify the URL of the item so that its URL may be stored for future reference. This may be accomplished by either accessing the archived item from the network or by entering the specific URL for the item into the searcher's computer. In either case, the searcher must be using their computer to bookmark the item of interest. This presents drawbacks when the viewer of an item of interest desires to bookmark that item for future reference when the viewer's computer is not accessible.
Known bookmarking techniques have the further disadvantage that the searcher may have to review an entire item to view that particular part of the item that is of interest. For example, if a searcher is interested in viewing a particular story in a news program that is archived, the searcher may have to scan through the entire news program before they are able to find and view the particular story that they are interested in.
Therefore, it would be desirable to provide an improved method for searching for archived items of interest and for bookmarking those items of interest at particular locations within the item for future reference purposes.